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The meltdown

A narrative based on bluster and falsehood cannot last very long. Surprisingly, this one lasted as long as it did. Arvind Kejriwal’s ‘sincere apology’ to Bikram Jit Singh Majithia, Arun Jaitley and others brings down the curtain to a very sorry episode in our recent political history but it also raises questions about the mental stability of the apologist himself. After all, the Chief Minister of a tiny Delhi had called the Prime Minister of India a ‘psychopath’.

It all started with the agitation of Anna Hazare at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. Those were heady days, Anna prime time. Anna who was himself an old crusader had inspired confidence and some even compared him with the Mahatma but unfortunately that was not the case. Well- meaning but gullible, naïve and even a little egoistical, he is no Gandhi. Neither his back ground nor the intellect made that cut and his latest fast also fizzled out as there is no public support.

Many people climbed on his bandwagon but only two benefited from the India Against Corruption campaign, Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi.

Sharp and educated, Kejriwal said the right things and when required he sat reverently in front of the then deity, Anna Hazare. He flagged the Tricolour with gusto and declared ‘hum desh badalne aaye hain’ and the people got taken in by this sincere aam aadmi looking young man in chappals, fed up as they were with the jaded leaders of other parties. He seemed to be the great white hope for India.

Delhi gave him support that has never been given to anyone else, not even to the popular Shiela Dixit. That was the beginning of the decline, Kejriwal started believing that he is the man the nation expects to deliver it from its woes. Four MPs from Punjab strengthened his thinking and soon he started having Prime Ministerial ambitions.

Instead of being a humble leader as he had promised, he instead became AAP’s supremo, sort of like a mini version of Mayawati.

Then came the purge. Starting with Hazare who became an obstacle in his search for glory, one by one all those who were his equal if not more outstanding were cut to size, ruthlessly. Prashant Bhushan, Yogendra Yadav, Dharam Vir Gandhi, Succha Singh Chottepur and many more were left on the wayside as Arvind marched on.

The march was accompanied by a lot of tamasha. Remember the dharna and sleepover in the blue quilt adorned with flowers on it on the pavement in front of the Railway Bhavan on a foggy 2014 just before the Republic Day rehearsal that gave sleepless nights to the organisers? On one side was parked his faithful Wagon R car. ‘How can I sleep when women in Delhi are unsafe’, he thundered.

Since then he seems to be sleeping pretty well, at least till now. But that can wait for just a bit.

Before that, with his cronies all in yellow turbans raised the slogan of inquilab zindabad. Bhagat Singh and his friends never wore yellow turbans but these fake revolutionaries caught the imagination of a section of the population who didn’t realise that there can never be an inquilab in India. We are too lazy for it.

And then Kejriwal and AAP took a step which initially gave them great strength but ultimately led to their meltdown and may even lead to its unraveling. They entered Punjab.

Punjab at that time was waiting to be conquered, disillusioned as the people were with both the Akalis and the Congress whom they considered and still do as two sides of the same coin. So, Arvind Kejriwal and his motley brand of volunteers marched in. Punjab was partially conquered but here the reckless Kejriwal met his personal Waterloo.

Being a border state Punjab has always had a problem with drugs but it has never been as bad as it was in the ten years of the Akali government with some top people accused of being the ‘kingpin’. Bikram Jit Singh Majithia especially was accused by the AAP for being the fountain head of ‘chitta’, the white drug powder.

A virulent anti Majithia campaign was launched with Kejriwal even standing on top of vehicles announcing that Majithia will be dragged to jail within 24 hours of the AAP coming to power for his alleged role in drug smuggling and it’s artificial manufacturing. No proof was given as they felt none was required, Kejriwal could not be wrong. As per Sucha Singh Chottepur, the Punjab convener who was unceremoniously dumped, posters worth a crore of rupees were printed to be put up in every constituency of Punjab targeting Majithia. The mobile numbers of workers were even printed on them.

Everything seemed to be going swimmingly well for AAP and its maverick supremo until he took a suicidal step which reminds one of an Urdu saying that goes, ‘In your madness you took a wrong step and then all your life destination kept looking for you’.

A section of Punjab flirted with extremism during the 80s and the 90s but having burnt its fingers badly, it now keeps a safe distance. Although some Sikhs abroad have unsuccessfully try to fan the ambers but there are no takers here for Khalistan or for radical Sikhism, Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau has also learnt this to his great cost.

But at that time Kejriwal and friends thought they could use the help of the radicals abroad. Money and support came openly alienating a large section of the population, bus loads of NRIs arrived from abroad. The last straw was another Kejriwal sleepover, this time at the house of a former Sikh extremist. People were alarmed and both the Congress and the Akalis dubbed AAP, Khalistani. Amarinder Singh who has an admirable record against Sikh extremism ran away with the prize and AAP came a distant second.

The Aam Admi party has no ideology, Mohalla clinics cannot be peddled as some kind of philosophy. The party was never evolved like the Congress, BJP or the Communists, instead It got attached to one man’s jumlas and his personal ambition. There was no one left to control him which is the cause of his present agony.

Kejriwal once he became heady with some initial success had gone berserk abusing people all around him but when the chickens came home to roost he surrendered and how. He is now on an apology spree but none has hurt his party as much as his apology to Bikram Jit Singh Majithia. This has finished the raison d’etre of AAP in Punjab as the entire narrative was built around the drug trade and involvement of the Akali leadership in it.

The local leadership is bewildered by the the apology of its leader and at one time there was talk of an open revolt. That has now stopped as there are four more years to go but Punjab AAP is on auto pilot, working independently of Delhi. The people here who have been taken for a ride by this unscrupulous politician are not likely to forgive Kejriwal his duplicity and pusillanimous.

But now it’s Haryana’s turn, after finishing with Punjab he is ready for his birth place. Now it’s ‘Kasam janambhumi ki’. With his reputation in tatters Kejriwal is a pale shadow of what he once was, even the opposition leaders are not touching him. He could have done better if he was not so reckless and over ambitious as there are no personal allegations against him. But as Justice Chelameswar has quoted in his letter of 21, March, “Men are often bribed by their loyalties and ambitions than by money. “

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

Blog

Author

Senior bilingual journalist for the last 40 years. Retired as Editor of Vir Pratap, the oldest Hindi daily of Punjab. He has contributed articles for The Tribune, The Dawn and Huffington Post and can be reached at chandermohan.net or @cmvohra

Senior bilingual journalist for the last 40 years. Retired as Editor of Vir Pratap, the oldest Hindi daily of Punjab. He has contributed articles for The Tr. . .

Blog

Author

Senior bilingual journalist for the last 40 years. Retired as Editor of Vir Pratap, the oldest Hindi daily of Punjab. He has contributed articles for The Tribune, The Dawn and Huffington Post and can be reached at chandermohan.net or @cmvohra

Senior bilingual journalist for the last 40 years. Retired as Editor of Vir Pratap, the oldest Hindi daily of Punjab. He has contributed articles for The Tr. . .